MANILA – Apart from resuming her duties as jury president of the 2015 adobo Design Awards, multi-awarded graphic designer Lucille Tenazas is returning to hold her second adobo Masterclass, “The Cultural Nomad vs. The Cultural Tourist”.
Held on Thursday, March 26, the day-long course will begin with a lecture presentation focusing on projects exploring inventive approaches to dealing with new terrains, new environments and new audiences. Through representative projects, Tenazas will highlight her professional and pedagogical approach as a communications designer and educator.
Creative people are often called upon to look critically at an unfamiliar environment, first assessing the situation, and then orienting themselves within it as they develop a relationship and understanding of what was initially foreign territory. The mindset of a cultural nomad is important in creatively responding to design challenges.
Nomads synthesize what they pass through, are permeable to experience and are ultimately altered by it. By seeking not to adopt, but to adapt to their surroundings, nomads can absorb and incorporate certain aspects and not others. The cultural tourist, on the other hand, remains separate and fundamentally unaltered by the experience of passing through different terrain. If we imagine ourselves as cultural nomads, we set ourselves free to enter different territories. It is with this mindset that designers today are able to engender qualities of community, participation and empathy.
Participants will be involved in a collaborative project as members of a creative team that will involve observation, primary research, visual assessment, and role play. Final projects may be physical artifacts, digital products, or processes and strategies. Selected projects and outcomes will be presented by participants at the end of the course.
Tenazas is Associate Dean and Henry Wolf Professor in the School of Art, Media and Technology (AMT) at Parsons School of Design in New York. She has been a practicing graphic designer as principal of her studio, Tenazas Design, working with corporations, city, state and federal entities as well as cultural institutions in the United States. Her interest is in hybrid practices resulting in poetic manifestations that combine analog and digital media.
“Cultural Nomad vs. Cultural Tourist” will be held at AXON, The Green Sun, Makati from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Registration is at P15,000 plus 10 percent VAT, inclusive of food and drinks. For more details, call 845-0218.
adobo Masterclass presented by Lucille Tenazas is supported by Green Sun, Executive Decisions, Raffles Makati, and Fairmont Makati.
